Jad Fair and Samuel Locke Ward

• Happy Hearts [Kill Rock Stars, 2023] A-

See Also:

• David and Jad Fair
• Jad Fair and the Shapir O'Rama
• Jad Fair and Kramer
• Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo
• merge all

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Happy Hearts [Kill Rock Stars, 2023]
At 69, Half Japanese main bro Jad still sounds like a half lyrical, half cheeky teen twerp. With his pitch elevated and his timbre lubricated, his boyish enthusiasm perches comfortably atop the full-bodied minimalist alt-rock filled in by his latest partner Ward, a sometime comics guy perfectly capable of darker thematics who lists "folk-punk" among his musical gambits. Whether twentysomething cynics are ready to admit it or not, what's not teen at all about these songs is that most of them are lived love songs: "Love is in charge/Love is now ours/We have it now/It's in the stars" is no more simplistic than the crushes of he and his brother David's musical youth and in all biographical likelihood less so--after all, David announced he was quitting the band decades ago so he could spend more time with his family. Jad, however, is set on proving he can have it all. A-